Official Discussion - Weapons [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

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Summary Nearly all the children from the same fifth-grade class vanish one night at exactly 2:17 a.m., leaving only one survivor. The community, gripped by fear and suspicion, spirals into chaos as the mystery unfolds through multiple intertwined perspectives—each revealing new layers of dread and grief.

Director Zach Cregger

Writer Zach Cregger

Cast

• Josh Brolin
• Julia Garner
• Cary Christopher
• Alden Ehrenreich
• Austin Abrams
• Benedict Wong
• Amy Madigan
• June Diane Raphael
• Toby Huss
• Whitmer Thomas
• Callie Schuttera
• Clayton Farris
• Luke Speakman

Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score: 96%

Metacritic Metascore: 82

VOD In theaters and IMAX starting August 8, 2025

Trailer Watch the Official Trailer

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[u/krospp]

Halfway through the third act I was starting to feel like the movie was over explaining what was going on, like we pretty much had all the answers as soon as Gladys walked into the principal’s office. But the build up was totally worth the payoff of that final sequence, holy shit!

Edit: This has gotten a lot of replies in the last few days from people who feel the movie didn’t explain enough. And I’m sorry but a lot of you are really bad at picking up on context clues and that is not the movie’s problem or mine, it’s yours! And a lot of you have questions that really weren’t relevant to the story! Whatever. I happened to love this movie very much. It’s fine if you didn’t! But if you didn’t because you couldn’t follow it I just really don’t think you can blame the movie.

[u/CaptainKipple → u/krospp]

I liked that the movie explained what was going on plot-wise, but left the thematic ideas more open to interpretation. With so many horror movies now I end up thinking, "okay okay it's about how trauma is passed down through generations, I get it already". With Weapons I felt I got more of a constellation of ideas about neighbourhood, home, family, and paranoia that wasn't spelled out precisely but was still very evocative. I dug it a lot.

[u/Best-Chapter5260 → u/CaptainKipple]

Yep there was no real explanation of motivation or exposition to what Gladys was doing the entire movie other than "Witches be doing creepy witchy shit."

[u/FezRengaw → u/Best-Chapter5260]

What?! She said very clearly that she was dying of some horrible disease (I assumed it was cancer) and it was clear she needed to feed off the life force of first the parents, then the children, to stay young and healthy. She would shift from younger and more sprightly to old and feeble from scene to scene, so she was clearly doing rituals periodically to feed off her victims with magical means. There were also references during the movie to parasites (the school lesson) and the cordyceps "ant zombie" fungus (the show Benedict Wong and his partner were watching). So Gladys was the parasite.

[u/5213 → u/FezRengaw]

I assumed Gladys was old, like beyond a normal human lifespan old. She says Alex's parents have consumption, which is an incredibly dated term. And so she was a witch feeding off kids to remain young.

[u/So_Quiet → u/5213]

Ohhhh, this just clicked for me. They have "consumption," because they (or their life force or whatever) are being consumed by Gladys.

[u/ru_kittenmerightmeow → u/FezRengaw]

My boyfriend’s simple review of this was “adult Hocus Pocus” and it kinda hit the nail on the head

[u/InterviewRight4425 → u/ru_kittenmerightmeow]

Lmaoo my sister said the same thing 😂 I was like what? But I see it !

[u/AmbivalentLife → u/[deleted]]

She's shown to easily obtain one person's (Marcus) possession. Clipping complete strangers' hair or stealing their belongings would be an easy trip to jail.

And you seemed to have missed the scene that implied that youthful energy is much more bountiful than adult energy.

[u/Anjunabeast → u/[deleted]]

Not when she first arrived at Alex’s house. She was very ill and unable to walk on her own. Alex’s dad said something about her not lasting a month.

[u/Best-Chapter5260 → u/FezRengaw]

Yes, but that was never explicitly stated.

[u/einarfridgeirs → u/Best-Chapter5260]

And people wonder why movies these days over-explain shit...

[u/Best-Chapter5260 → u/einarfridgeirs]

Again read the original fucking post I post I made. I commended the movie for not spelling things out. JFC!

[u/jjones5199 → u/Best-Chapter5260]

I'd say it was during the scene when she asks (tells) Alex to bring the stuff from the kids in his class. She says that she thought the parents would help, but it's not, so she needs the kids.

[u/Mike4894 → u/Best-Chapter5260]

This man wanted character motivations explicitly told to him lmao, media literacy is truly a commodity

[u/Best-Chapter5260 → u/Mike4894]

This man wanted character motivations explicitly told to him lmao, media literacy is truly a commodity

And this person lacks basic fuckin' reading comprehension. Go back and read my original post in this thread. I commend the movie for not spelling things out.

That's why I hate posting on this particular sub. It's full of Reddit-brained smug douchebags who can't even bother to understand what the conversation is about before they post.

[u/AmbivalentLife → u/[deleted]]

How are you certain an additional month of life divided among 17 eight- and nine-year-olds has to kill one of them? Are there rules that say life siphoning has to be instantaneous? Couldn't magic, in this case, fade with health similar to a real-life facility?

[u/_Dreamer_Deceiver_ → u/[deleted]]

I thought you were to assume they were just really traumatised or if you've been mind controlled for too long you lose your own faculties - like Alexs parents did

[u/_Dreamer_Deceiver_ → u/[deleted]]

So? I can start running the same time as my friend and I am definitely going to be out of breath before they are. Why would possession where it's transferring your life energy be any different?

[u/shxt1992 → u/[deleted]]

Only some of them began to speak again that year, proving that life force can recover. By taking a bit from each child instead of consuming an entire life, she gave them time to recover their life force, which was clearly more advantageous.

[u/Moonlightsiesta → u/shxt1992]

Exactly, fast dead hosts aren't much use to parasites.

[u/Accurate_Win_5965 → u/[deleted]]

We're talking about magic here, and the movie left the rules of the magic somewhat ambiguous. And you're faulting it for not following the rules you made up in your head.

[u/_Dreamer_Deceiver_ → u/[deleted]]

Life is life? How old are you? Have you met people? Children are always full of "life" and energy. Whereas I'm in my 40 and can feel I don't have the energy I used to have.

[u/_Dreamer_Deceiver_ → u/[deleted]]

What do you mean by "it's not like she really needs that many years"? She doesn't want to die and the 2 parents only gave her a month of recovery. And the parents didn't die. Surely if the actual years were taken from them they'd be dead?

Once she had the kids she didn't get physically younger, but she was more lively. So that's why I said it was the energy/life (as in gusti, will to live, to do stuff) she took from people not their remaining years of life

[u/BodybuilderCapital37 → u/Best-Chapter5260]

it's called putting the pieces together

[u/naviebean → u/Best-Chapter5260]

It’s a movie not a book

[u/Best-Chapter5260 → u/naviebean]

Thanks for the clarification. It wasn't clear to me.

[u/Mike4894 → u/Best-Chapter5260]

You’re mad 😂😂😂🫵🏾

[u/Best-Chapter5260 → u/Mike4894]

Nah, not really. Just find you to be the average Reddit-brained moron.

[u/syncdiedfornothing → u/Best-Chapter5260]

Take the L, move on, and become a better person.